April and May Lessons Learned

I neglected to post my "lesson learned" for April.  No reason other than just a very busy month.  My lesson for April went along with my April BJP ~ but no craftiness there....I learned to simply take a leap and do something I hadn't done in years ~ go out and enjoy myself.  With the economy and joblessness hitting us personally so hard, we've done nothing but watch each and every penny go to one bill or another (most often times with late fees ~ can never get caught up!).  We also needed to get out for other reasons (previously hinted upon in other posts).  We had such a blast and it was the best therapy we could have given ourselves!  We didn't spend a ton of money and we met a lot of nice NEW people. 

I learned that it's OK to let go and have some fun even though there really isn't money to do it, and outside of our small circle of friends.  We needed to relax more than we needed to worry about what bill to pay with the $40 we spent.  We also got to remember that there are other people to meet, who do like us and that we can have fun with ~ we really are nice and fun people.  We actually got to see and feel what it was like to be our old selves again.   It gave us hope that those times will come back ~ we just don't know when.

In this month of May I wanted my lesson learned to be craft related again.  I have been so busy lately with babysitting, that I have let my crafts slide to nothing since March!  No wonder I felt like I was going nuts!  So, I buckled down and searched for a project ~ yarn related again (since I have so much of it to use).  I decided that I needed a shrug to go with a tube top sundress my wonderful daughter bought me.  Of course she got me a black one.  My color choice was pretty much unlimited, but what color did I start with?  Black....Well, it will go with everything and now that I know it looks and feels great I will go on to make other colors in different variations. 

The stitch I learned that was *new* was a drop stitch.  Oh, I've dropped them on my own, sure....And the stitch is not overly hard, unless you get side tracked and forget what you're supposed to be doing (like I did a couple of times).  But, I make at least one mistake in my projects, and usually fix them, but I left them this time.  I think it adds character! 

I am also doing a shrug in crochet, this one in Grape.  I pretty much lost interest at the moment and I am ready to rip it out since it's using so much more yarn than the knit one I just completed and it's taking so long to do it ( I'm maybe half way done ~ and am quite impatient.  Probably why I've never done a sweater, lol).  Still undecided at this moment....

Anyhow, here are some pictures of these projects.  not such great pictures since purple doesn't show it's true hue on my camera and I have never photographed myself before....Enjoy!  I will post my pattern soon for anyone interested.